Tag Archives: Zack Stentz

Something I didn’t have a problem with when I was young were the ‘funny fonts’ and the pretend handwriting in print. I read comics every week and managed just fine.

But these days I find I just won’t read the books I receive that don’t come with ordinary print. Jeff Kinney’s Wimpy Kid is an example. I no longer feel guilty, because the man seems to do all right even without Bookwitch reviews of his books. Daughter read the first one and loved it. I was sure I would also have enjoyed it, had it not been for the visual effects. ‘Handwriting’ and diaries with ‘hand drawn’ pictures are simply not for me.

This week I looked longingly at the new Liz Pichon book about Tom Gates. It sounds good, and looks fun, as long as I don’t have to try and read it.

Aspie book Colin Fischer by Ashley Edwards Miller and Zack Stentz contained diary sections, which I had to read if I wanted to get through the whole story. I really wanted to, so forced myself.

I have read comics in my hard-to-please adult age. Some have been better than others. It depends on how much motivation I have, and on the layout in each individual case. David Fickling’s Phoenix was actually OK. I wonder if they spent more time over design?

My Vi magazine has a regular page which I can’t tell you much about. I believe it’s a comic style political comment. But I don’t actually know, as I can neither see the pictures properly, nor even begin to hope to decipher the words. I assume someone must, or they wouldn’t – couldn’t – print the stuff.

It feels a waste to strive for the hard-to-read style, but my experience of suggesting that magazines stop printing yellow on white and similar, generally meets with surprisingly unhelpful replies. They feel it looks good. No one has complained before. They are a little sorry I can’t manage it. But not very sorry. There are many other readers, after all.

Can there be too many aspie novels, and in particular, ‘aspie character solving a crime’ novels? Possibly, but as long as they are well written and entertaining I can certainly manage a few more. I did stop to consider this as I started on Colin Fischer the other day, thinking that I was on familiar ground, but I soon fell under the spell of Colin and his family. He has a mother who says ‘holy sh–!’

Although only twice. I think. She works for NASA, and Mr Fischer does something spacey-sciency as well. Hardly surprising they have ended up with a son like Colin. More surprising his younger brother is so ‘normal.’

Colin has just started high school, and he did so with his head flushed down the toilet. He keeps a notebook for just about everything. He seems to know just about everything, too, except how to socialise with people.

One day a gun goes off in the school cafeteria, and Colin sets to work on finding out who did it. He works almost harder at proving who didn’t do it. For this he has to leave his comfort zone. And he has to lie, which he needs help with.

You could see this as ‘simply’ another book set in an American school, with a socially awkward boy solving a mystery in an aspie kind of way. But I loved it!

Perhaps one day we can have an aspie hero who isn’t quite as capable as Colin. Most parents of children on the autistic spectrum have far more serious concerns than those faced by Mr and Mrs Fischer. But as contemporary entertainment, this has everything; mathematical rules about where to park your car, as well as advice on cooking for people who sell weapons.

I’d never heard of Ashley Edwards Miller and Zack Stentz before, but it seems they are the scriptwriters for X-Men and Thor. I can’t decide whether they intend to return to Colin Fischer, although I believe they left the door open.

We are not really any the wiser regarding why Pauley Perrette left NCIS. But it’s always possible to deduce something that may be close to the truth. After Abby’s last episode it was as if Pauley had to get it … Continue reading →